Ask:
This may have been asked before and I apologize if this is a repeat. How many of you use unit studies? How do you decide which one to use when? I like the concept of them but I'm confused as to how I will incorporate them into our curriculum.
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I do some units, like for holidays(presidents for presidents day) and science units(bugs/flowers&seeds/life cycles, etc). I like them b/c they are so fun and i have young kids. We use a curriculum though that is not unit study based, but we mix it all in and do our own thing. How old are your kids?
An easy way to set them up timewise is to just match them with what is going on at that time of year. And you can throw in extra's that you want to do in the gaps
Easy Examples of stuff we did last year for my 2 & 4 year old (I added these into our normal curriculum)
Spring: Bugs/Insects-life cycles, butterfly pavillion was a big hit here, etc. Seeds/planting/make a garden discuss flowers/vegetables/fruits that you grow/can grow etc, then you could lead into the Food pyramid once you get on food.
Summer, 4th of July, flags, American Songs (Wee Sing America is a great CD my kids highly recommend it)
Fall Thanksgiving-Native Americans-Early Americans, Williamsburg, Mount Vernon (we live in VA so we did alot of American History last fall)
Winter Snow/snowflakes, Christmas, New Year-Calendars, Valentine's, President's Day were we are right now, learning the Presidents. We have been doing one a week in order and it's so cute to hear my 2 yr old tell my dh "no daddy, James Madison was the 4th president!
It's such fun!
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We do almost all of our curriculum from unit studies. I have found some wonderful resources online that have lesson plans based on unit studies and I use these as a springboard to plan my units. I decide which unit to do based on my kids interests at the time, the time of year, things going on in our lives, etc. For instance, my kids were very in to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie when it first came out. So, we did a very long unit on pirates. It was so much fun! We read Treasure Island, studied several pirates, studied geography of pirate voyages, etc. This year our theme in school is Early American History. So, we've incorporated early American tradition into all of our holidays, etc. We studied the pilgrims at length prior to Thanksgiving. We've studied early American Christmases during December.
It really just depends on what your curriculum is and how much you want the unit to impact your current work. Check out some of the websites in the websites thread. You can pick and choose from the lesson plans and get various ideas about unit studies from some of those sites.
My favorite unit study site is:
You may wish to start out small and just do a day or two unit study on something to test the waters. My advice is to pick something that the kids will love in the beginning. That way they will learn to love these special units, too!
Best wishes!
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I found some great units that I'm actually excited to teach. Those links are great! Thanks Ladies!!!
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I am so glad you found some thing to use! I love those sites and find great stuff there all the time!
Your excitement will rub off on the kids, too!
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Just a question, It seems that all the home school sites I have found so far are religious based. Are all home schooling sites this way?
Thanks
Brightest Blessings to All
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I've wondered the same thing. I've found a lot of websites that aren't but I haven't found any magazines that aren't. That isn't to say I'm not religious, because I am. I just don't want to incorporate religion into every single subject. KWIM?
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Sorry, I'm not going to be much help here. I'm sure there are some out there, but I don't know off hand what they are. I'll keep my eyes open and post anything I come across though.